Jose Sulaiman Again Embarasses Himself and Boxing
Published Jan 19 2011 by: Rich Thomas | Follow us on Facebook & on Twitter
By announcing that he was stripping Sergio Martinez of the WBC Middleweight Title, Jose Sulaiman pulled yet another outrageous move in a long series of farces and frauds. Rubbing salt into the wound and highlighting just how ridiculous the WBC has become under Suleiman, technically Sergio Martinez is now the organization's "Emeritus Champion," while Sebastian Zbik of Germany steps up from "Interim Champion" to regular champion. I suppose it is only a matter of time before the WBC names a new Interim Champion for the middleweight division as well.
The recent history of the WBC Middleweight Title only highlights just how scandalous this move really is. WBC Rules specify that a champion must defend his title twice a year, and unless an exemption is granted, that must be against a fighter ranked in the WBC's Top 10. Martinez won the title by beating Kelly Pavlik in April 2010. The slugger from Youngstown, Ohio made only one defense in 2008. His 2009 defenses were against Marco Antonio Rubio and Miguel Angel Espinosa, two fighters who arguably should never have been on any Top 10 ranking.
In other words, the WBC gave Pavlik pass after pass for two whole years. Pavlik's lack of activity was, in fact, the justification for giving Sebastian Zbik the "interim title," a fiction that allows the WBC to keep on collecting sanctioning fees while letting a well-connected title-holder off the hook.
Martinez won the title from Pavilk and promptly defended it against a real world class contender, Paul Williams, later that same year. While Martinez signed to fight Sergiy Dzinziruk in March, who is not ranked in the WBC Top 10, this should never have resulted in Martinez losing his title if the organization's rules were faithfully applied. Martinez must defend his title twice during the 2011 calender year, and the WBC wanted one of those defenses to be against Zbik. "Maravilla" could have met Dzinziruk in a non-title bout and gone on to fight twice more later in 2011, easily meeting his obligation.
While the timing of this announcement follows that of Martinez vs. Dzinziruk, more seriously it also follows that of Pacquiao vs. Mosley. The notion that Jose Sulaiman would have stripped away the WBC middleweight title if there were even the remotest possibility that Manny Pacquiao wanted to fight Martinez for it is laughable. Sulaiman and his rubber-stamp board would have been falling all over themselves to make whatever exemptions were necessary to make that happen, and poor Zbik would have been forced to languish in the interim.
More sinister is the very real possibility (albeit speculative) that Bob Arum had a word with Sulaiman, and the two colluded to move Martinez out of the way, paving the road to a much easier bout for Pacquiao against Zbik later this year. Of course, Top Rank's influence with the organization is felt here in another way as well. With the move, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. becomes the mandatory challenger for the belt. Wouldn't it be great if Top Rank star Manny Pacquiao faces Top Rank son-of-a-star Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the WBC middleweight title of the world?
This incident underscores everything wrong with modern boxing. The Interim Championship and other equally ludicrous creations dilute the value of the WBC's green belt, as do rankings that name journeymen as world-class contenders and a rule book that allows one champion to skate free and clear for years while another sees the rules flagrantly twisted and ignored. Yet somehow the WBC remains the most "prestigious" of the alphabet sanctioning bodies. According to who? Jose Sulaiman, Don King and Bob Arum?
I don’t like the way the WBC running their organization but blaming Arum influence doesn’t make any sense. First of all Pacquiao is not planning to move up another weight. He’s staying at welterweight. Why talked about Arum influence? Do you really think they’re stupid as you? lol
Why Pacquiao’s name comes up again on this issue? Can’t you numbnuts do something better than making assumption of Pacquiao’s plans?
The guy doesn’t have anything to do with this crap.
Try mention somebody else like this guy Mayweather who is playing hide and seek. get him out of his shell so he can fight Pacquiao!
Bob Arum is a BASTARD!!!
dragging pacquiao on this issue is really non-sense, the guy does not have any plans of moving up again in weight. The fight with mosley is staged at 147 which is welterweight. Unless martinez and the other pretenders would go down at 147.
This writer is bum! Total non-sense speculation….
@ RICH THOMAS…you all folks we must ignored this paid roll list of the GOLDEN EGG YOLKS PROMOTION team…we all knew that from time to timne this lousy,crab mentality thinker, and a member of DE LA HOYA who is a super envy,jealousy about an ASIAN superman that change the whole history of world wide boxing…this type of boxing writers are nothing to gain but to destroy the image of the true GREATEST FIGHTER OF ALL TIME!!! and by that…they will certainly grinded thier teeth hearing…knowing that thier blackie afro-american so called the greatest will no longer be a greatest..we must pray this kind of writer coz after the PAC of POWER retires…they will surely plant SWEET POTATOES on thier own backyards…to feed to thier hunger family!!! coz the UFC will going to be the biggest amd most epectacle fighting sports in the planet earth…and boxing?? naaaahhh…a just DRUNK sport…everybody will missed the PAC of POWER…and all of the pactards haters? they will bow to kneel to the PAC of POWER just to return to boxing and for them to regain thier source of income..
Oh look, the PACTARDS have come out again at the slightest suggestion that anyone remotely connected with Manny Pacquiao might be anything other than a completely honorable, angelic human being.
*gag*
Oh look. Racist Floydiots are here too. He he he…
Pacquiao has a jr middleweight title and needs to defend it. Who better than Sergio Martinez, i mean it was his belt and it was striped from him for Pacquiao and Margacheto.
And now he’s fighting an other middleweight Shane Mosley.
Pacquiao is a great fighter but needs needs to stop fighting washed up fighters like Margacheto and Mosley. I mean whats next a rematch with Cotto?
Pacquiao’s camp has decided not to make Pacquiao face a bigger opponent again after the Margarito fight. Pacquiao struggled to move up in weight while training vigorously. Didn’t you see the weigh in? He’s too small even for junior middleweight. Why can’t Martinez go down to 147 from which he got knocked out by Margarito and let’s see if he can win the fight against Pacquiao?
In fact, calling Margarito a washed up fighter, Margarito has more chance of winning against Martinez due to Martinez’ questionable stamina as a 35 years old boxer if they ever fight in full middleweight. Even if he wins, I very doubt Martinez can do as much damage as Pacquiao did to Margarito if Margarito stabilizes his weight as a middleweight. Martinez’ weakness is his stamina and his questionable chin.
Martinez can’t come down to 147, but he could probably make 154. Suggesting a middleweight squeeze down to welterweight is PACTARDED. Besides, you chumps are crazy. Insane. Nutbags. Pacquiao was only a small part of this article, and speculative at that. Where is your outrage that Martinez — a solid champ who loves to fight — got screwed by the WBC? Nowhere, which is what makes a Pacfan a FAKE boxing fan. None of you whackjobs gives a f*ck about boxing past Manny Pacquaio.